Robin Lung
Film maker, Honolulu, Hawaii
2014 Asia Study Tour Participant

The 2014 Peace & Reconciliation study tour was a profound learning experience for me. This was my first trip to Asia and my first extended group tour to a foreign country, so I had a lot of apprehensions before the trip. Now I am so happy that I experienced China and Korea with this group. The tour allowed me to access people and places I would not have been able to see or meet on my own or with another tour group. And I found that my experience was enhanced because I was traveling with this select group.

Because I’m working on a documentary film about US/China relations before and during WWII, I was interested in exploring WWII history and its relevance to us today. I had read a number of books about the subject before the trip. But traveling with a group of educators from the US and Canada, who were interested in the same topics, helped me explore complicated issues and my own emotional reactions to them in ways I could not have done by myself. Meeting with survivors, scholars, and activists brought history alive for me in a tactile way that added a new dimension to my book learning and made me want to explore both past history and current events in Asia more extensively. It was truly a life-changing experience.